Tell Santa Clara Valley Water District No Tunnels!

Californians for Water Security, the Stewart Resnick Big Ag Astroturf (front) group, is now asking Californians to send emails in support of the Delta Tunnels/CA Water Fix to Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Board.

“Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) needs to hear from ratepayers like you that will actually pay the costs, not a tricky front group spending millions to promote the Delta Tunnels project,” according to an action alert from Restore the Delta (RTD).

“The SCVWD staff has presented the Board an analysis of the Delta Tunnels project based on the assumption that agricultural exporters will contribute 40 percent of the total project cost,” RTD said. “But spokesmen from the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District have both recently declared the project ‘unviable’ and said that their farmers are unwilling to continue funding the project. This will dramatically shift the costs of the Tunnels directly onto the ratepayers of Santa Clara Valley Water District.”

Please send this email to Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Board (copy and paste is available below) or customize your own: http://restorethedelta.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=06887fa70084fef8e939fef63&id=a9b0802d9f&e=120d0c2b69

Also, if you are a Facebook user, please take a minute to call out this front group by posting a comment here: https://www.facebook.com/securewaterca/posts/562902250535877

Dear Directors of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, I am writing to ask you to oppose the Delta Tunnels.

Every resident of the San Francisco Bay-Delta region (largest estuary west of the Mississippi) has a stake in your decision. Your obligation is to provide a secure, reliable and affordable water supply for your rate payers. So, delivering the best value for public dollars should be your primary concern as you evaluate this project.

So far, more than $250 million has been spent on a revised proposal that the EPA recently gave the failing grade of “inadequate.” The state needs another $1.2 billion soon to fund engineering and design studies, and it needs assurance that enough water districts will participate to pay the $17 billion tab.

But here is a better solution for securing water supply reliability for the Santa Clara Valley while protecting the SF Bay-Delta estuary: restorethedelta.org/…

Let’s focus investments on conservation and reuse, improving Delta levees, and investing in water recycling and storm water capture projects that would help promote regional self sufficiency and create long-term, local jobs. Sincerely, [Your name]